Nonwoven fabrics are useful for a wide variety of applications, including absorbent personal care products, garments, medical applications, and cleaning applications. Nonwoven personal care products include infant care items such as diapers, child care items such as training pants, feminine care items such as sanitary napkins, and adult care items such as incontinence products, pads, and pants. Nonwoven garments include protective workwear and medical apparel such as surgical gowns. Other nonwoven medical applications include nonwoven wound dressings and surgical dressings. Cleaning applications for nonwovens include towels and wipes. Still other uses of nonwoven fabrics are well known. The foregoing list is not considered exhaustive.
Various properties of nonwoven fabrics determine the suitability of nonwoven fabrics for different applications. Nonwoven fabrics may be engineered to have different combinations of properties to suit different needs. Variable properties of nonwoven fabrics include liquid-handling properties such as wettability, distribution, and absorbency, strength properties such as tensile strength and tear strength, softness properties, durability properties such as abrasion resistance, and aesthetic properties. The physical shape of a nonwoven fabric also affects the functionality and aesthetic properties of the nonwoven fabric. Nonwoven fabrics are initially made into sheets which, when laid on a flat surface, may have a substantially planar, featureless surface or may have an array of surface features such as aperture or projections, or both. Nonwoven fabrics with apertures or projections are often referred to as three-dimensional shaped nonwoven fabrics. The present disclosure relates to three-dimensional shaped nonwoven fabrics.
Despite prior advances in the art of nonwoven fabrics, there remains a need for improved nonwoven fabrics having three-dimensional surface features.
Further, there remains a need for processes and equipment for manufacturing improved nonwoven fabrics having three-dimensional surface features.
Further, there remains a need for articles, including absorbent articles, utilizing improved nonwoven fabrics having three-dimensional surface features.
Further, there remains a need for absorbent articles utilizing nonwoven fabrics having three-dimensional surface features and which can be packaged in a compressed form while minimizing the loss of the three-dimensional surface features when opened from the package.
Further, there remains a need for absorbent articles utilizing soft, spunbond nonwoven fabrics having three-dimensional surface features that have reduced fuzzing properties when in use.
Additionally, there remains a need for packages of absorbent articles comprising soft nonwoven materials that have a reduced in-bag stack height compared to conventional absorbent article packages so the packages are convenient for caregivers to handle and store and so that manufacturers enjoy low distribution costs without a loss of aesthetics clarity, absorbency, or softness of the as-made absorbent article.